Douva wrote:The committee hearing for HB 1893 is scheduled for this coming Monday, March 30.

Crap. That means SG will probably get to them before we do.

Should we contact committee members to convey our support for the bill?

I think a brief email to each of the committee members, along the lines of, "I'm a student at the University of Texas, and I strongly support House Bill 1893," would be appropriate. Just remember to keep it short and respectful. You don't want to come across as lecturing, and this definitely isn't the time to lash out at our opponents. Plenty of people are working very hard to make our case to the legislature, so you don't need to feel like it's your job to sell the committee members on this bill. You just want to make sure they hear from students who support it. Be sure to sign the emails with your name, classification, and major, as well as your address and phone number.

HB 1893- Campus Carry is scheduled for public hearing on Monday March 30th. The NRA-ILA has sent an e-mail alert suggesting we contact the committee members.

Following is that alert:

Texas:Campus Carry bill to be Heard Monday!

Please Contact The Members of the HousePublic Safety Committee Today!

On Monday, March 30, the House Public Safety Committee will consider HouseBill 1893, legislation sponsored by State Representative JoeDriver (R-113) that would allow valid Concealed Handgun Licensees toprotect themselves on Texas college and university campuses.

Please call and email committee members and urge them to support HB1893 with no gutting amendments. Law-abiding citizens with aConcealed Handgun License (CHL) should not be denied their right toself-defense just because they work or study on the campus of apost secondary educational institution!

Please contact the membersof the House Public Safety Committee listed below and respectfullyurge them support HB 1893 with no gutting amendments.

Keith - Thanks much for posting the link. I watched the video for so long this evening that The Wife got reeeeeeal agitated with some of the testimony, then bored and went faaaar away to read. Of course, I'm more in to some of that stuff, have paused it after just over 2 1/4 hours and will try to listen to the rest maybe tomorrow. Thanks again for the prompt link.

Can someone help me understand here? I set an alert and SB1164 (campus carry) looks like it got voted on and ?passed? (vote record is not available yet) and got "engrossed" and passed to the house. Since there is already an HB1893 which is the identical bill in the house, what happens next? Is it being passed to the house just a formality, meaning that if HB 1893 passes, someone will make notice that these are identical and it will go to the governor?

One more question: when does the legislative session end? (I'm too lazy to dig for it. )

AUSTIN, Texas — Talkative House Democrats used stalling tactics Friday to prevent passage of a voter identification bill they oppose that's scheduled for debate this weekend.

Democrats — who'd warned they would put up a fight to stop the voter ID measure — began talking at length on non-controversial legislation to use up the clock. The Legislature adjourns June 1, and a number of bill passage deadlines are arriving in the next few days.

The Senate already passed a Republican-pushed bill requiring voters to show a photo ID or two non-photo ID alternatives when they cast a ballot. Democrats say that would prevent people without those forms of identification from voting and suppress turnout. If Democrats are going to stop the legislation, it will have to be in the House, where the chamber is almost evenly divided by party.

Veteran Rep. Delwin Jones, R-Lubbock, said Democratic opponents of the voter ID bill were trying to pressure fellow lawmakers to negotiate the legislation, in turn threatening scores of unrelated bills. The delay tactic, using the rules to eat up time, is known as "chubbing."

"In lieu of the filibuster, the House chubs," Jones said. "It keeps a lot of bills from being considered, which puts a lot of pressure on the members who have bills they want to pass."

The House gaveled into session 30 minutes late Friday. Then, after the usual prayer, pledge and welcoming remarks, legislators started in on a long "local and consent" agenda. It's supposed to be a non-controversial agenda of bills that usually breezes along.

But Democrats made it clear they planned to ask lots of questions on those bills and use up all the time permitted — 10 minutes per bill — to slow down the House's work pace.

One Democratic lawmaker during his questioning about a proposed municipal utility district in Waller County brought up a House leadership scandal from the 1970s. Another, questioning a Republican doctor representatives on his legislation, asked about the best remedies for nasal congestion.

Rep. Sid Miller, R-Stephenville, raised a technical point to try to prevent the whole local and consent agenda from being considered so that the House could return to major pending bills, like changes to the top 10 percent college admissions law and, potentially, voter ID, slated for Saturday. He later temporarily withdrew that technical challenge.

"Hopefully we can get back to the people's business and see less chubbing," Miller pleaded, to no avail.

Republicans huddled to talk strategy at the back of the House chamber and in an adjoining conference room, where former Speaker Tom Craddick joined them. The Republicans told news reporters to leave the room.

Speaker Pro Tempore Craig Eiland, a Galveston Democrat, presided over the House early Friday instead of Republican Speaker Joe Straus, as is usually done for a local bill agenda. Eiland reminded lawmakers they had a full three minutes to explain their bills if they wanted to take all the available time.

At one point during the morning stalling, Democratic Rep. Mike Villarreal of San Antonio asked Eiland with a smile: "Mr. Speaker, are we going to break for lunch?"

Lawmakers were told there would be no formal lunch break; there was complimentary shrimp waiting for them in the recently remodeled legislators' lounge.

Douva wrote:Lawmakers were told there would be no formal lunch break; there was complimentary shrimp waiting for them in the recently remodeled legislators' lounge.

Next time, how about having McDonalds cater the session, and take it out of their pay?

And remodel that lounge again as a storage area. They've got tables on the floor, so until they can learn to be on time, they don't need to leave for lunch.

I wish there were some way to calculate how much of the House's time during the 2009 legislative session was spent recognize people in the gallery, recognizing birthdays and anniversaries, and commemorating people who recently passed away.

Today there were a couple of editorials commenting on the amount of time wasted by the Texas Legislature, published in Texas newspapers.